Library fines fall for second year running

Last year saw a 38 per cent decrease in the amount of library fines given to students for failing to return their books on time.

The amount of fines levied in 2013/14 was £35,531, a drop from the £57,462 that was charged in 2012/2013.

This follows a 50 per cent decrease the previous academic year. In 2011/2012, the amount of library fines levied was £113,929.

The library has recognised its Flexible Loans policy as the reason for the decrease in the amount of fines.

A spokesperson from the University said: “The reduction in library fines has been driven by the success of the Flexible Loans initiative which we introduced in October 2012. Under Flexible Loans, students and other users need only return an item when another user has requested it, and therefore only receive a fine if they fail to do so.”

Students incur a charge of £2 per day or part of a day if they fail to return a Flexible Loan item that has been been requested by another user, compared to £1 per hour or part of an hour for a Key Text that has not been returned on time.

Key Texts can be borrowed for up to four hours or overnight if taken out after 6pm on weekdays or 2pm at the weekend.

Speaking of the introduction of the Flexible Loans scheme in 2013, Stephen Town, Director of Information, said: “Student experience is at the heart of all we do at York. We work hard to bring about change in response to the needs of our users.

“We are continuously looking to improve our services, and it made no sense to us to limit the time a user has an item if nobody else actually wants it.”

The library aims to achieve zero fines and told Nouse: “We are pleased with this [recent] success and have an ongoing commitment to reducing fines.